One of Us: Stories - Softcover

Nadelson, Scott

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1943491259 ISBN 13: 9781943491254

Publisher: BkMk Press of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2020

Synopsis

Winner of the G. S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction, selected by Amina Gautier
Eric Hoffer Award finalist

The stories in One of Us explore the tension between groups and individuals, the allure of tribalism, the claustrophobia of belonging, and the alienation that comes with separation. They range from autobiographical to historical and roam temporally and geographically, chronicling, among others, an encounter between the sculptor Louise Nevelson and the anti-Semitic French writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline; a synagogue congregation facing ongoing public scandal; a comedy improv troupe trying to cross the threshold from amateur to professional; and a young man navigating the competing pulls of adventure and domestic bliss at the cusp of the new millennium.

About this title

About the Author

Scott Nadelson grew up in northern New Jersey before escaping to Oregon, where he has lived for the past twenty-four years. He has published four collections of short stories, The Fourth Corner of the World, named a Jewish Fiction Prize Honor Book by the Association of Jewish Libraries; Aftermath; The Cantor's Daughter; and Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories; and a memoir, The Next Scott Nadelson: A Life in Progress. His novel Between You and Me was published by Engine Books in 2015. Winner of the Reform Judaism Fiction Prize, the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award, and an Oregon Book Award, Scott's work has appeared in a variety of magazines and literary journals, including Ploughshares, The Southern Review, New England Review, Harvard Review, Glimmer Train, and Crazyhorse, and his work has been cited as distinguished in both the Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays anthologies. He teaches at Willamette University, where he is Hallie Brown Ford Chair in Writing, and in the Rainier Writing Workshop MFA Program at Pacific Lutheran University.

From the Back Cover

''With stories largely set on the northeast corridor at the end of the twentieth century, or in Europe during World War II, the past bleeds over into the present in One of Us, blurring the historical and the contemporary. Identities and the boundaries within which they exist are defined and then redefined once more when characters board ships and take sail, visit correctional facilities, attend synagogue, or hide in plain sight … In One of Us, characters can’t help but to come up short as they try to bridge the gaps between who they are and who they wish to be. From the silent scornful bullying of congregants who shun a disgraced family, to a young man whose Aryan features allow him to move through Berlin unmolested while he watches other Jewish countrymen rounded up for the camps, to the emergence of a liberal community's latent racism rearing its ugly head when zoning laws permit the inclusion of affordable housing units and, by implication, an influx of black and brown residents, these stories challenge the ways we identify in terms of nation, race, class and religion and ask readers to consider who really belongs.'' — Amina Gautier, contest judge, PEN/Malamud Award Winner, and author of the story collections At-Risk, Now We Will Be Happy, and The Loss of All Lost Things ''The stories in One of Us kept knocking me off my feet and pulling me back up, drawing me in with their heart and intelligence, then flooring me with unexpected moves. They are wonderfully wide-ranging—leaping from past to present and back, as apt to gentle a figure out of history as to explode with immediacy—yet they are all linked by a clear-eyed honesty, a sense of wonder and dread, an ability to land suspense with surprising weight. These are ripping good tales by a remarkably gifted writer.'' — Josh Weil, author of The Age of Perpetual Light and winner of National Book Foundation's ''5 Under 35'' Award ''Whether probing the aches and bafflements of suburban adolescence or bringing the horrors of history to life, Scott Nadelson's stories are always finely-tuned and full of surprises. Small moments lead to big questions about what it means to be a man, an American, a Jew, or—inevitably—all of these things at once. When we say someone is One of Us, who is the 'one' and who is the 'us,' and what do they—what do we—owe to each other? Every story in this wise, heartfelt, moving collection addresses this complicated question, which may ultimately be unanswerable. But Nadelson has done the crucial thing, which is to ask and ask and ask.'' —Justin Taylor, author of Riding with the Ghost ''Striving artists. Delinquent boys. Rival neighbors. Couples who suddenly discover that 'nothing as ecstatic as love's first flare ever lasts.' In Scott Nadelson's stories, these memorable characters either are 'one of us' or outcasts trying to find their way back into the pack. Along the way they force themselves and the reader to pose the question, 'Is this a world worth thriving in?' One of Us offers a rich array of surprising character-driven plots and is a perfect example of storytelling at its best.'' —Rita Ciresi, author of Sometimes I Dream in Italian and Bring Back My Body to Me

Edition details

• Publisher: BkMk Press of the University of Missouri-Kansas City
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1943491259
• ISBN 13: 9781943491254
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 298